Law in a Time of Crisis

Review time spent on Law in a Time of Crisis is time spent in the company of a brilliant mind considering interesting thing ... any person of broadly liberal instinct will find much in this enjoyable book to agree with and much that can improve one's way of thinking and of making an argument -- Daniel Finkelstein ― the TimesSumption has always been more than just a lawyer. For many years he was the brilliant QC and then Supreme Court justice who somehow found time on the side to write a definitive, multivolume history of the Hundred Years War: a true Renaissance man -- David Runciman ― GuardianThoughtful, stimulating and even entertaining ... Lord Sumption's opinion is always worth listening to, even - or especially - if one disagrees with it. -- Robert Tombs ― TelegraphPraise for Trials of the State:Brisk, entertaining, brilliant ... one of the great lawyers of our time -- Bryan Appleyard ― Sunday TimesMagisterial -- Edward Fennell ― The TimesElegant and crisply argued (Best Politics and Current Affairs Books of 2019) -- Robbie Millen ― The TimesThe book is hard going, but rewarding. Sumption ... leads his readers persuasively to positions which, when they stop to think, they may not find comfortable -- Michael Fry ― The National (Scotland)Sumption examines the increasingly difficult relationship between government and the courts... a former Supreme Court judge,[he] seems rather gloomy about democracy's future, but has produced a very readable analysis (The best current affairs and politics books of 2019) -- Roland White ― Sunday Times Product Description Brexit, the possible break-up of the UK, pandemics, this is a country in crisis. In crises the law sets the boundaries of what the government can and should do. But in a country without a written constitution such as the UK, the precise limits between legal obligation and convention can be hazy. Conventions, such as the Prime Minister being an MP, can not be enforced in the same way as laws.What are the limits of law in politics? What is the relationship between law and the constitution? Is not having a constitution a hindrance or a help in time of crisis? Former supreme court judge Jonathan Sumption wrestles with past, current and potential crises that this increasingly divided country faces. From the role of the Supreme Court to the uses of referenda to the rise of nationalisms within the United Kingdom, Sumption exposes the subtleties, uses, and abuses of legal and judicial interventions. With razor sharp intelligence and far-reaching analysis he counsels caution both in our impulse to radically upend the system and to challenge results that we may not be what we want. Book Description What is the right relationship between the law and politics, judges and politicians? About the Author Jonathan Sumption, Lord Sumption, is a British judge and historian. He served as a Justice of the Supreme Court from 2012 to 2018. He has written several books of Medieval history including The Age of Pilgrimage, the Albigensian Crusade, and four books on the Hundred Years War, the third of which, Divided Houses, won the 2009 Wolfson History Prize. His previous books were published by Faber & Faber.